Building Relationships
Construction is a people business! It is people within organizations that come together to execute the strategies and tactics that make for business success.
Watch Digging Deeper this week as Dennis emphasizes the necessity of doing the little things to build the relationships necessary for business success over time. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments.
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Hello everybody, Dennis Engelbrecht with The Family Business Institute and the CEO Roundtable Program for Contractors.
Today, I just want to talk about relationships. In thinking about how to be successful in executing a construction job, it
occurs to me that 90% of this is really about people. Yes, there are technical ends. You have to know how to read drawings,
interpret drawings and specs, and all of those things, and execute against those things. But really, it's people that are going
to do the drawings, get you the permits, get you the inspections. They're going to be the ones who actually build the
building. It's going to be about people.
As you go through the process of trying to execute a construction project, your success is going to come down to
relationships. When you need something done, is your relationship strong enough that the person you need to deliver on
this is going to deliver for you? When you have a conflict, or you have something that people don't agree on, are your
relationships strong enough to work through that conflict and find the win-win or find the better way that works for
everybody? And when you have to make a hard decision, can that relationship withstand the fact that you know today I
just need this to be done?
Even with your employees, your own employees, your own relationship with them has a lot to do with trust, productivity.
Employees are at their most productive when they feel that they can trust the job site, when they feel their safety is taken
care of and they don't have to be worrying about that. They feel like the company has their best interests at heart. And
again, a lot of that just comes from relationships. Again, it's the people, the people part.
When you think about this and you think about, how am I going to make my job successful? Think about relationships and
think about the other part of this is that it does take time to invest in those relationships. When you get out to the job site
in the morning, don't forget to say hi to people. Don't forget to ask them some personal questions. Don't forget to shake
hands and don't forget to treat people with respect. Because in the end, the relationships you have are going to be the
key to your success in getting a job done on time, on budget.
Thanks for tuning in.
